Airport security

[miffy63]

My son flew into Heathrow last week from Australia via Hong Kong. He walked off the plane, picked up his bag and when asked if he had anything to declare he said he hadn't so after a glance at his passport he was waved through, all in all this took just 10 minutes. Ok he's my son, so I know he wasn't carrying anything he shouldn't, but was he just 'lucky' or does everyone pass through British airports this quickly?

[lafrancaise]

Getting out of a country and onto a plane nowadays is harder than getting into a country. You've been scanned, been checked before getting onto the plane. This is why they're more flexible on in comers.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

if he was going to do anything unlawful,he would have done it by the time he had landed,think about it miffy

[Loosehead]

The level of security depends on where the flight comes from and the passengers there on. They know in advance who is landing, In this case it was obviously considered low risk. Now a flight from say Columbia would no doubt attract more scrutiny.

[robertson]

NORMANTHEDOG, I don't think you can have read the question. miffy63 isn't referring to anything his son might have done on the flight; he's referring to what his son might have brought into this country. And he's expressing surprise that Customs clearly weren't interested in checking that on his son's arrival at Heathrow. Lafrancaise (what gorgeous thoughts your name conjurs up) makes a good point on that.

[jake-the-peg]

Customs officers aren't just at the desks.

They watch people from the moment they get off of the plane and there's often nothing random about the people they stop.

They often work with other agencies and use tip -offs.

Just stopping people at random is unlikely to be an efficient use of resources

[saxy_jag]

I walked in from the USA just as easily, despite the fact that the value of my 'gifts' was probably a little over the allowance.

Airport security, customs, immigration etc. know who they're looking for. They have names and faces, they know the travelling patterns and behaviours of the people - or the type of people - who are likely to be smuggling big stuff into the country knowingly.

If your son had been up to anything illegal, chances are that it would have been picked up at the other end, and he would have been monitored throughout the journey as the authorities gathered evidence (remember, whilst it may be a crime to take stuff into countries, it may not be illegal to take it out).

[Pajama Girl]

You know, there's illegal and there's dangerous.

I'm concerned about illegal items passing through customs.

But I am in dread of dangerous items and dangerous people passing through customs.

It's the difference between
*being annoyed at someone thinking they can sneak around our substance laws and our tax laws and
*being killed by a suicide bomber.

[Ralph]

Talking about targeting of resources, I came through Gatwick early on Saturday morning from Italy at the same time as the flight from Kingston, Jamaica had arrived. Practically everybody on the Jamaica flight had their bags sniffed by a specially trained puppy since there's a much much larger chance of there being something illegal on that flight than there might have been on my flight. The customs people know what they're doing, mainly 'cos they've learnt from the criminals.

[Hippy]

I am British and travelled from Athens to Heathrow some years back. By some crazy oversight, i had left my passport with a hotelier in the north and only realised when the bus was in the outskirts of the capital. I went to the Embassy with some mugshots from a kiosk and obtained an emergency passport once they had confirmed who I was by phoning the UK and getting a photo faxed back.

I arrived in Britain only to be scooped off unceremoniously into a private wing of the Immigration and was strip searched and then had my intimate cavities probed. Whilst this was all done in an efficient manner, there was no question of my not complying with their requests as armed officers were present, even during the humiliating intimate bit.

I came away thinking that the immigration folks were just "having a laugh" at my expense for being so silly about leaving my passport. There was nothing remotely suspicious about where I had been or what I had been doing in Greece. Just a holiday and some museum visits, and a couple of days with the British Archaeology School.

[jake-the-peg]

I think in terms of personal risk you have to remeber that getting killed by a suicide bomber in this country is way out there with winning the lottery.

There are a lot more pressing dangers out there - 3,000 were killed on the roads last year, 236 fatal stabbings, 70 killed in workplace accidents and 37 in the London suicide bombings.

If I were you I'd be more in dread of my daily commute!

[matt66]

A little bit about what has happened with Customs and Excise in this country. Forget about all the mergers with inland revenue. That is cosmetic. In the past 5 years there has been an insidious reduction of customs operational capability. It all comes down to saving money and getting rid of staff. The labour govt hit upon a fantastic scheme. They call it risk assessment of flights. So where at one time Customs officers were based at each airport and were available to see all incoming flights, the situation now is that 'Risk assessment officers' (a bunch of statistical no hopers) will throw jargon (that means nothing in the real world) at computers and will asssess flights on risk. So they will say....flight from Tenerife....in the last 8 months we have not seen any contraband goods on flights from that destination so there is no point in seeing that flight now. They also check passenger manifests to see if known smugglers are travelling on these flights (usually random checks). So if you are not known to the customs and your name is not flagged you can bring in what you like. Customs officers are now in mobile teams sent on silly missions to different ports because some statistician has risk assessed a flight. So the scenario is this....when you dont check a flight for a few months the results of risk assesment will always show that the flight is low risk (because you bloody well havent checked it in the past year) so there is no need to send someone to check it now. That is the joke that risk assesment has become with customs in this country. saves money for this govt though.

[lafrancaise]

Excuse me miffy, but do none of us get any stars?

[miffy63]

I apologise for not joining in with this discussion on the question I asked but I haven't been allowed near the computer due to a certain Mr Miffy, apparently he was VERY busy.
Ps Robertson, Miffy rabbit is clearly a girl as is Miffy63!

Thank you all for your input. I do realise that coming in from Oz is less risky but I still think it was quick.